Microsoft has released version 3.5 of the Hyper-V integration components for Linux. This download is intended for versions of Linux that do not have the Linux Integration Services (LIS) for Hyper-V already installed in the kernel.

Version 3.5 of the LIS supports:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.5-5.8, 6.0-6.3 x86 and x64

CentOS 5.5-5.8, 6.0-6.3 x86 and x64

Hyper-V from 2008 R2 onwards is supported, including Windows 8 and 8.1.

The below matrix describes which Hyper-V features are supported in which version of the LIS and distro/version of Linux:

Notes

Static IP injection might not work if Network Manager has been configured for a given HyperV-specific network adapter on the virtual machine. To ensure smooth functioning of static IP injection, ensure that either Network Manager is turned off completely, or has been turned off for a specific network adapter through its Ifcfg-ethX file.

When you use Virtual Fibre Channel devices, ensure that logical unit number 0 (LUN 0) has been populated. If LUN 0 has not been populated, a Linux virtual machine might not be able to mount Virtual Fibre Channel devices natively.

If there are open file handles during a live virtual machine backup operation, the backed-up virtual hard disks (VHDs) might have to undergo a file system consistency check (fsck) when restored.

Live backup operations can fail silently if the virtual machine has an attached iSCSI device or a physical disk that is directly attached to a virtual machine (“pass-through disk”).

LIS 3.5 only provides Dynamic Memory ballooning support—it does not provide hot-add support. In such a scenario, the Dynamic Memory feature can be used by setting the Startupmemory parameter to a value which is equal to the Maximum memory parameter. This results in all the requisite memory being allocated to the virtual machine at boot time—and then later, depending upon the memory requirements of the host, Hyper-V can freely reclaim any memory from the guest. Also, ensure that Startup Memory and Minimum Memory are not configured below distribution recommended values.

About This Blog

This blog serves 2 purposes. Firstly, I want to share information with other IT pros about the technologies we work with and how to solve problems we often face. I've worked with technologies from the desktop to the server, Active Directory, System Center, security and virtualisation.

Secondly, I use my blog as a notebook. There's so much to learn and remember in our jobs that it's impossible to keep up. By blogging, I have a notebook that I can access from anywhere. It has saved my proverbial many times in the past.

Waiver

Anything you do to your IT infrastructure, applications, services, computer or anything else is 100% down to your own responsibility and liability. Aidan Finn bears no responsibility or liability for anything you do. Please independently confirm anything you read on this blog before doing whatever you decide to do.